West Coast Saison

A Belgian/French Saison with an American Pale Ale hop schedule. Still dominated by WY3711's spicy and slightly citrusy yeast character, the Centennial and Galaxy hops provide a nice hoppy aroma and flavor. WY3711 always finishes low and dry, no matter how high I mash, which is perfect for the hops to shine. I bottled 1/2 the batch and kegged the other, and prefer the bottles with a month or two of conditioning. I brewed this in the fall, but plan on making another batch for the summer months.

Grain:
8 lbs. Pale Malt (2-Row)
2 lbs. Vienna Malt
1 lbs. White Wheat Malt
.5 lbs. Caravienne Malt

Mash: (single infusion: 1.25 water/grain)
60 minutes @ 152 degrees F
10 minutes @ 168 degrees F

Boil:
.5 oz Centennial Hops @ 60
1 oz Centennial Hops @10
1 oz Galaxy Hops @ 10
1 oz Centennial Hops @ 0
1 oz Galaxy Hops @0

Fermentation:
200 Billion Cells of WY3711
21 days at 70 degrees F, 7 days at 70 degrees F with 1 oz Centennial and 1 oz of Galaxy Hops.

Updated Picture:

Sounds interesting. Is there anything you would do different a second time around?

I really liked the grain bill and the yeast. If I change anything there, it will swapping wheat malt for flaked wheat. I may end up playing with the hops. This was my first time using Galaxy, and I was honestly a little disappointed. There are plenty of people that seem to like them, they just may not be for me. I may end up doing a 50/50 saaz/cascade or saaz/centennial blend next time around for the flavor, aroma, and dry hops.

I probably will brew this again in the spring, for the summer months. It's definitely a cool spin on the saison style.

Awesome. I may do a version of this this weekend and play around with the hops some. How long was it in the primary?

Also what would you think of a first wort hop addition instead of a 60 min with this?

Definitely play around with the hops. You can tailor this to your own hop favorites. I don't see any reason FWH wouldn't work. 21 days in the primary, then 7 days with the dry hop additions. I keg the majority of my beers but preferred this one bottled and aged for 4-6 weeks.

Yeah I keg most of my beers as well. If they're better bottled and aged for that long I may hold off on this because I really want to get my pipeline up and running. Something I haven't been able to do since I started in march of last year. Phooey. This looked like a fun experiment. Maybe I'll try it next weekend.

Let me know if you end of brewing this and what hop combo you use.

Sure thing man!

I have a starter going for brewing a derivative of this this weekend. I'll be using citra and either amarillo or simcoe, I forget which I chose...

In any case, I might up the base malt just slightly... More of a strong hoppy golden.

Got the ingredients to brew a batch of this. Subbed out the two row for pilsner and used flaked wheat as well. Same yeast.

Hops look like this:

1/2 oz Simcoe 60 min
1 oz Citra 10 min
1 oz falconer's flight (3 c's) 10 min
1 oz Citra 0 min
1 oz Falconer's Flight (3 c's) 0 min

Dry hop after 3-4 week primary with 1 oz each of Citra and Falconer's Flight. Part of me wants to do a secondary with some dried grapefruit peel, but having never brewed this (much less a Saison) I think I'll save that for next time around. Hope to brew on Saturday.

Got this fermenting away and it smells absolutely glorious!

You're definitely going to get some American hop character. The recipe looks amazing. I will be brewing up some variations of this once my ambient fermentation temperature gets into the 70 s.

Thanks man! The closet I ferment in stays in the low seventies with the vent shut. I also usually use a swamp cooler to get everything down to the upper sixties but I have a SMaSH ale in there now and I wasn't gonna use it anyway. So I opened up the vent in there and wrapped my bucket in a few towels and its been fermenting around the upper seventies/low eighties. I cannot wait to try this!

Two weeks in bottles and its tasting pretty stinking good! Another week and it should be right where it needs to be. I might enter this into a competition this spring for ****s-n-giggles. Got some great mango/passion fruit flavors from the Citra and Cascade combo.

I actually just drank my last bottle tonight. What type of yeast esters did you get in the seventies/low eighties, and what was your final gravity. I am looking at brewing this again this spring but am planning on changing a few things. I don't have a ton of experience with WY3711 and want to try and ferment higher, to get more esters, but don't want it to finish any lower than my first batch.

I just did a couple of beers with Citra and I like the idea of using it in this recipe. I wanted to try more saaz, but I think Citra and Saaz would be too strange a combo and I may try a 50/50 Citra/Cascade combo. Orange peels also were a thought.

F.G. came in at 1.008. It dried out a little more than I was hoping, but it works pretty well I think. It is fairly estery, perhaps not as fruity as commercial examples but still good. It has a pretty musty flavor which I'm assuming is from the yeast profile and the fermentation temp. It's the first time I've used that strain and I do enjoy it.

I'm thinking of brewing this up as my first AG next weekend, but I'm thinking about using Motueka and Pacific Jade hops (because I like the spice and citrus they give).

Good idea? Terrible idea? Hop schedule?

And by the way, I'm fully aware that this takes away from the whole "American" pale ale schedule. I just like the idea.

jkn09 said:

And by the way, I'm fully aware that this takes away from the whole "American" pale ale schedule. I just like the idea.

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Galaxy is Austalian, so I think you're ok with the NZ hops. Motueka and Pacific Jade will be great together in a saison. Both hops reflect their lineage predictably, NZ versions of Hallertau and Saaz, well suited to 'new school' saisons.

Awesome. Thanks. I'm looking at something like this:

.5 oz Pacific Jade @ 60
1 oz Pacific Jade @10
1 oz Motueka @ 10
1 oz Pacific Jade @ 0
1 oz Motueka @0

Dry hop for 7 days with 1 oz of each.

Worst case scenario, I end up with a "unique" beer.

jkn09 said:

Awesome. Thanks. I'm looking at something like this:

.5 oz Pacific Jade @ 60
1 oz Pacific Jade @10
1 oz Motueka @ 10
1 oz Pacific Jade @ 0
1 oz Motueka @0

Dry hop for 7 days with 1 oz of each.

Worst case scenario, I end up with a "unique" beer.

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This, as well as the original recipe, look very interesting. To those who've tried this, to what extent is it similar to Tank 7? American hops, saison yeast, etc.

jkn09 said:

And by the way, I'm fully aware that this takes away from the whole "American" pale ale schedule. I just like the idea.

Click to expand...

I was using American pale ale schedule to describe the boil schedule (late hop additions), not nationality of hops used. I would bet NZ hops will be great in this beer, and really interesting with the saison yeast. Keep us posted.

I have never tried tank 7, but see it all the time. I'll have to grab a bottle the next the I'm shopping and let you know. They're probably very similar.

Ordered my ingredients for this yesterday. I'm planning on keeping the grain bill the same, but using Falconer's Flight and Sorachi Ace hops on the same schedule. I also decided to go with White Labs WLP 568 (Belgian Saison Blend) since it tolerates higher temps.

I'm looking forward to it as my first AG and I'll post results!

heyblinkin said:

I have never tried tank 7, but see it all the time. I'll have to grab a bottle the next the I'm shopping and let you know. They're probably very similar.

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Thanks. Yes, I agree, they are likely quite similar. Great beer, Tank 7.

heyblinkin said:

I was using American pale ale schedule to describe the boil schedule (late hop additions), not nationality of hops used. I would bet NZ hops will be great in this beer, and really interesting with the saison yeast. Keep us posted.

I have never tried tank 7, but see it all the time. I'll have to grab a bottle the next the I'm shopping and let you know. They're probably very similar.

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FWIW Tank 7 is Magnum, Bravo, & Amarillo per the Boulevard website. Good beer, hope I get to try the Brett version when it is out again. Also, 4 packs run about the same $-wise as 750s on the Smokestack stuff.

I just had Tank 7 for the first time this week and was blown away. If I ever make a beer that good I'll be overjoyed.

jkn09 said:

I'm thinking of brewing this up as my first AG next weekend, but I'm thinking about using Motueka and Pacific Jade hops (because I like the spice and citrus they give).

Good idea? Terrible idea? Hop schedule?

Click to expand...

I bet NZ hops would be awesome in this. I know Citra and Cascade were wonderful. Those tropical fruit flavors I'm sure will work out awesome.

P.S. This stuff really came together around 6-8 weeks in the bottles. Here's a picture of how mine turned out. I bet some brett or other wild yeast would be great to try as well. Might have to try that here soon.

Klickmania said:

I bet NZ hops would be awesome in this. I know Citra and Cascade were wonderful. Those tropical fruit flavors I'm sure will work out awesome.

P.S. This stuff really came together around 6-8 weeks in the bottles. Here's a picture of how mine turned out. I bet some brett or other wild yeast would be great to try as well. Might have to try that here soon.

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Good looking beer!

So I brewed this up last weekend and got an OG of about 1.055 (my efficiency was low since it was my first BIAB, and I know what I did wrong).

I plugged it into brewtoad to see what my numbers should be and my FG should be 1.013. Well 6 days after brewing it's at 1.014! My question is this: when do I add the dry hop additions? I want to dry hop for 7 days, so should I add them now since I'm almost at FG?

jkn09 said:

when do I add the dry hop additions? I want to dry hop for 7 days, so should I add them now since I'm almost at FG?

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I would give the primary fermentation at least 14 days to finish up. I have only used 3711 a few times and it finishes much lower than 1.014. After 14 days you should be fine to dry hop.

Ok. I actually used White Labs 568 (Belgian Saison Blend), but I've heard similar things about it. I only had 75% attenuation factored in, so I'll give it another week.

banik said:

I have a starter going for brewing a derivative of this this weekend. I'll be using citra and either amarillo or simcoe, I forget which I chose...

In any case, I might up the base malt just slightly... More of a strong hoppy golden.

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This turned out really great. I'd definitely recommend Citra and Simco in this with the 3711 yeast. So Good.